Dogwood Daily: Dunnavant releases ad calling for bump stock ban she voted against

Welcome to today’s edition of the Dogwood Daily. We’ve got a round-up of all of today’s Virginia news coming right up. And if you’re a fan, please forward to three friends who need to know what’s going on in the Commonwealth and tell them to subscribe here. 

But first …

Wingardium leviosa! The magical sounds of ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ are coming to Chrysler Hall in Norfolk. The Virginia Symphony will perform a live score while the film is projected on a 40-foot screen on Nov. 30. The show returns to Virginia in Feb. 2020 at the Altria Theater in Richmond.

Five things you need to know today …

1. Karen Mallard: Virginia Beach victims must be “honored with action”: In the aftermath of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Karen Mallard took a grinder to her husband’s new AR-15. She sawed it in half to make a point about gun control in a campaign video that went viral. “Gun violence is real, but I don’t want it to happen here — where we live — so we’ve got to do some things to stop it,” Mallard, then a candidate in a Democratic congressional primary, said in a TV interview. The stunt was criticized by gun rights groups, which gleefully reported it to the ATF for creating an illegal short barrel rifle. But this tale doesn’t end with ridicule from the far-right. The painful, real “gotcha” moment, one which Mallard never wanted to be right about, happened one year later, less than one mile from her house in Virginia Beach. -The Dogwood
   
   
2. Dunnavant called for ‘bump stock’ ban in TV ad, a proposal she voted against in the Senate: State Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico) says in a TV ad that she supports a federal ban on bump stocks, devices that allow continuous firing of a semiautomatic firearm with one trigger pull. But as Everytown for Gun Safety pointed out, Dunnavant voted no on that issue just last year, as a member of the Virginia General Assembly. Richmond Times-Dispatch
   
   
3. Virginia ranks among states with lowest crime rates: New FBI data shows Virginia had the fourth lowest violent crime rate and 13th lowest property crime rate in the United States last year. The Commonwealth had 200 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2018, well below the national average of 369 per 100,000 residents. There were 1,666 property crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in Virginia, about 25% less than the national average of 2,200 per 100,00 residents. -NBC12
   
   
4. Voting rights restored to 22,000 Virginians: Since taking office last year, Gov. Ralph Northam has restored rights to more than 22,000 felons who have completed their sentences. The restored rights include the right to vote, serve on a jury and run for public office. -Associated Press
   
   
5. Queen Latifah to host Women’s Summit in Virginia: Queen Latifah will host the Women’s Achieve Summit next week in Richmond, Virginia. Tuesday summit coincides with the 400th anniversary of the recruitment of English women in significant numbers in the Virginia colony — in Nov. 1619, 147 English women were recruited to join Jamestown’s male settlers. Notable female business leaders, politicians, and activists who will join Latifah to honor 400 years of women’s achievements. -Washington Post

A chart before you go …